Upon hearing the story of Thursday’s car-theft episode, the first thing that goes through anyone’s mind is sympathy for the terror the Korean parents, visitors to Hawaii, felt. The rental car, their 9-year-old son inside, was stolen from Lanikai, police in hot pursuit.

But now that the scare ended with nobody injured and the thief arrested in Kaneohe, everyone can breathe a sigh of relief … and marvel at the child’s presence of mind. He asked to be dropped off at Kalapawai Market and noted the license plate number for police.

Few people at age 9 — or 39 — would be that level-headed.

Fewer risk setting up house in Pele’s Puna backyard

Very few things can depress real-estate sales in a market like Hawaii’s, in which demand far outstrips supply. A volcano, it appears, is the rare exception.

Sales of single-family homes in the Puna district, where Kilauea has been spewing lava for two months, are down 25 percent over the previous year. The decline was enough to drive the statewide total down a bit as well. That reaction is surely not surprising. The question is: How long will it take for the region’s sales to recover, assuming it ever does? The figures for 2019 will show whether anyone will take Pele’s dare.